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2 weeks ago

Awww... whats not to like about infect? its like commander damage, but better (only need 10 damage), except for Melira, Sylvok Outcast/Solemnity/Vizier of Remedies/other anti-infect effects, and also it' isn't nearly as efficient because you don't have access to your infect creatures every game no matter the hand, but you do your commander.

1 month ago

You can use Vizier of Remedies in the place of Melira, Sylvok Outcast. Vizier functions exactly like Melira in any persist combo, but also makes infinite mana with Devoted Druid. Druid also makes infinite mana with Cathars' Crusade and Ghave, so I'd actually recommend putting Druid back in the deck and replace Melira with Vizier unless you have a bunch of Infect decks in your meta for some reason.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of Ghave. I've been playing the deck for over five years and it's probably my favorite since I've entered the format (it's not my strongest deck, just my favorite to play). My Ghave deck is here, so that you know from where my experience stems: Ghave: Baby Makin' and Alimony.

Zulaport Cutthroat is probably a straight upgrade to Blood Artist. Artist targets, Cutthroat does not (which means you can kill people behind a Solitary Confinement or something with Cutthroat).

Illusionist's Bracers is a second copy of Doubling Season when attached to Ghave, as it'll cause him to produce double the tokens and double the counters. People tend to focus down Ghave once a doubler hits field, but a lot of people tend to ignore Illusionist's Bracers because it's more innocuous. You could find room for it by dropping Butcher of Malakir whom, while he is useful and can impact the board pretty well, has an absurdly high mana cost that is hard to support off of only 28 lands (my deck runs 35 + 15 ramp with an average mana cost of 2.68. Your deck is 28 lands + 10 ramp at 3.51, which I don't find to be enough to support 7cmc cards).

I do not think the Grave Titan + Nim Deathmantle loops are worthwhile. You'll always have access to Ghave (only limited by mana), and this combo requires 3 cards outside of your Commander to function (while Ghave is 2 cards from library + Commander). I actually think these cards could be removed to better implement strategies your deck already utilizes- for example, you could add in cheap tutors. Your deck basically relies on getting Earthcraft or Ashnod's Altar, for example, but Enlightened Tutor isn't in the deck. You also have a number of key creatures used for combos, and Eladamri's Call is quite cheap after its reprint. Notwithstanding, Squirrel Nest is just a far easier, quick and dirty combo to win with Earthcraft for infinite squirrel tokens, and only takes 2 non-Commander cards to make infinite tokens vs 3.

Random additional suggestions:

Pattern of Rebirth (under $5, makes it very easy to get Woodfall Primus, Vigor, or even Butcher, etc.)Green Sun's Zenith (finds a substantial portion of your combo pieces. With Dryad Arbor in the mana base, it can even function a 1 mana ramp)

Random suggestions for removal:

Vigor. While he's good, he's kind of durdly protection and all he really says is, "Your creatures cannot be blocked" which Champion of Lambholt already does for half the mana cost.

Planar Portal. Waaaaaay too much mana. Diabolic Intent may be a single shot effect but it finds anything for 1/6th the mana cost, and Enlightened Tutor will probably find what you need anyway.

Overall: Increase your tutor/draw count so you can more easily assemble your bread and butter 3 card combos. Maybe add in a 2 card combo in Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft because why not, right? Swap Vizier over Melira unless your meta is full of infect because it still works with Persist creatures and would enable Devoted Druid + Vizier + Cathar's Crusade for infinite green mana, which you can then spend to make infinite tokens and make everything but Druid huge. Also, possibly swap Zulaport Cutthroat in over Blood Artist, because not targeting can be relevant.

1 month ago

I would also look at adding more lower cost ramp cards - Birds of Paradise, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Llanowar Elves - these all help speed up the deck. Devoted Druid is not cheap, but is really good with Shalai as you can get a bunch of +1/+1 counters on druid and then trade them all for a lot of mana. Adding Vizier of Remedies to the mix gives you infinite green, which gives you infinite +1/+1 counters.

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